5.40pm That bodes well, writes Mike Selvey. Jimmy A's first ball of the summer almost a replica of Harmy's in Brisbane.

5.20pm Received an email not so long since telling us that SA were top of the LG ICC ODI rankings, writes Mike Selvey.

The ball is still hooping around nicely here for the Warwickshire seamers and a very good chance now that we shall see Jimmy Anderson this evening, and indeed tomorrow morning, with a new ball in his hands. I think in the winter his obsession with inswing to right-handers – ie away to left handers – meant he struggled to produce what ought to be, and once was, his stock delivery away from the right hander. Let's see if it is still there.

5.10pm The sun is starting to dip at Hove, and my thoughts are turning towards the train journey home, writes Andy Bull. Harinath finally raised his fifty, from all of 233 balls at a strike rate of just under 22. He was dropped at first slip off Robin Martin-Jenkins when his score was 47, and so decided not to risk another scoring shot for what seemed like an age afterwards. Gareth Batty has come and gone for 23, so at the other end Chris Schofield is swiping, heaving and mowing at whatever comes within reach. He's currently on 25. He and Harinath are a real odd couple at the crease, Schofield keeps playing scatty sweeps – Monty is still on – and hopping around his crease. Harinath is mostly as motionless as Ozymandias. I have to get on and write my report now, so that's it from me for the day. Surrey are certainly a lot better off then it looked as though the would be after the first hour, but Sussex will be by far the happier side by the stumps.

4.01pm And there's more, adds David Hopps. I think this is best revealed to the world exactly as

sent by the ECB:

"ECB Media Release

Thursday April 15, 2010 - for immediate use

FTI Consulting announced as sponsor of MVP rankings system

ECB and PCA today announced a new three year sponsorship deal with the business consulting firm FTI Consulting for the Most Valuable Player (MVP) rankings system."

So, if I'm correct, this is the ECB/PCA FTI MVP rankings?

Trips off the tongue doesn't it? Somehow I doubt you will ever see that in print again.

3.56pm Things have settled down at Sussex, writes Andy Bull. Gareth Batty and Arun Harinath have put on 50 runs together, taking the score to 131-5 at Tea. Which is still a sorry-looking state of affairs when you look at it.

Monty is bowling a tight line, his spell lasting throughout the session while the seamers took turns at the other end. Harinath is playing for his place - he had a poor match against Derbyshire, and had been dropped to 12th man for this game until Brown pulled out yesterday. He is playing with excessive caution, but I suppose in the circumstance he can be forgiven that. He's batted through the day, facing 205 balls for his 42. People are starting to nod off in their deckchairs.

Harinath is one of a crop of Surrey players playing in this game who have come though their academy in Guildford – Denbach, Hamilton-Brown and Spreigel also came through the ranks there. Mark Ramprakash was very critical of the club's younger players last week, saying: "What Surrey are desperate for and have been for the last few years is for the young players to grab that opportunity and say 'I'm the man, I'm going to open the batting and score the runs,' or 'I'm going to take the new ball' and I don't think that in the last few years the young players have done that, they haven't grasped the opportunities that are here." I suppose Harinath is doing his best to start rectifying that here.

I see Trescothick has gone at Headingley, for 117 out of 215. So long as Peter Trego is still in – and he is, on 28 – there is hope of a kind I suppose, but I have to say as a fan I'm a little worried about Somerset this season. Their batting has been terribly fragile in the last two years, and I do wonder just how much of their success in that time was due to Justin Langer's drive, dedication and purpose as a captain. I think they might miss him more than they imagined they would.

3.11pm Stop press, writes Mike Selvey. Prince pulls a bouncer, first ball of a new Neil Carter spell, to deep backward square and potters off having made 82, leaving Lancs 168 for six.

3.07pm Made it in time for lunch then which is never a bad move, writes Mike Selvey at Old Trafford. Last night's Wisden dinner at Inner Temple meant an overnight stay in London and a drive up this morning. You couldn't move on the roads for grounded aircraft, although unless the volcanic ash is blue with white fluffy bits there is not much sign of it over Manchester.

Having gone off half cock about the early start to the season, it has at least given me an opportunity to reacquaint with county cricket. Leicester last week, and now old Trafford, complete (or not so complete in fact) with The Point, pillar box red, dwarfing the pavilion to which it is adjacent and looking like the new Terminal One at Port Stanley airport.

Glance through the county scoreboards and the evidence is there that sappy spring pitches are having their say. Most sides are inserting, not least Warwickshire, who had no hesitation in asking Lancashire to bat. Informed rumour has it that Glen Chapple would have batted, although how he might have felt after Chris Woakes opening burst of three for one in 15 balls had reduced them to nine for three, and shortly after 14 for four is another matter.

I've seen Woakes only briefly before, and he bowled straight after the interval here. On first sight he seemed to lack pace for which often prodigious swing can compensate in these April conditions but not when it gets flatter. Today's viewing bears out that impression which is of someone who could hit the crease a deal harder than he does.

Having spent much of the winter watching Ashwell Prince trudge runless back to the dressing room it was good to see him play robustly and well on the way to a century to help drag Lancs out of the mire. Steven Croft, with whom he added 133 for the fifth wicket, ought to have gone better than his 64 too, but rather tamely he holed out at point.

2.15pm To those of you below the line wondering exactly what the fox had done to make a pest of itself, I'm glad you asked because the answer is priceless, writes Andy Bull. According to chief exec Dan Brooks "this particular one over the last few months has started to cause problems by scratching around on covers and acting oddly. It was probably not particularly healthy because of its behaviour." Quite what is meant by "acting oddly" I'm not sure. Maybe it had started to look sideways at the players. Maybe it was wearing a funny hat. Maybe it was thumping its paw against its forehead and muttering to itself under its breath. We can but wonder. Anyway, Surrey are in all sorts of strife. They're 87 for five as I type, having lost both Rory Hamilton-Brown and his great mate Steve Davies since lunch. Monty Panesar took Davies' wicket, and duly started leaping about whooping and hollering around the pitch. He should be more careful... some people would down this way could categorise that as "acting oddly".

1.55pm It's lunch at the Riverside and Alastair Cook can take it with some satisfaction, writes David Hopps. He has survived the morning session without giving a chance, and is 37 not out at lunch, with Essex 71 for two. Without Steve Harmison and Graham Onions, Durham's attack has not quite been at its most potent on its first championship outing of the season, but it has been a good, disciplined effort by Cook, further signs perhaps of the gathering maturity that he showed skippering England in Bangladesh this winter.

Notts' start at Trent Bridge will also have delighted their coach Mick Newell. Newell has spent too much of his life watching Will Jefferson get out cheaply and it must have been with some relief that he finally let him leave for Leicestershire. Neil Edwards, Jefferson's replacement, signed from Somerset, is 73 not out from 99 balls at lunch. That's a healthy early-season strike rate. Will Edwards prove the signing of the season? I have never seen him, and you can't judge anybody at Taunton where the town clerk could probably get a fifty or two as long as Marcus Trescothick saw off the new ball.

I must admit I'd love to be at Hove, and I'm immensely envious of Andy Bull. From 300 miles away it seems full of delicious tensions as Rory Hamilton-Brown tries to stave off a Surrey collapse against his old county. The Cricketers Bar tonight might be an interesting place to be.

12.20pm Maybe we should crow while we can, writes David Hopps, yet again as Selv is rumoured to be stuck in a traffic jam in Staffordshire or something and has still not made it to OT. The Guardian seems to have predicted that Lancashire will finish bottom of Division One this season. This was partly a hunch based on so many early-season games and Gary Keedy's shoulder injury, partly my feeling that they lack class, and partly because we had so many predictions that sides would finish seventh that we had to stick a pin into Lancashire and put them ninth instead.

So far, unless you have Red Rose loyalties, in which case you will be spluttering about the betrayal of the Manchester Guardian, it all seems to be going according to plan. Lancashire have lost four wickets against Warwickshire — three to Chris Woakes — and the first hour of the season is not yet spent. Smith, Moore, Horton and Chilton all dismissed. There are a few blockers in that lot. By the time Selvey gets there, Sajid will be slogging it.

11.50am Ah, there you all are. Greetings from David Hopps at The Riverside. Sorry about the delay, I have just been chipping ice of the car. There is a removal van outside the ground stating Chester-le-Street Relocation. It sounds a good idea. I reckon about 1,200 miles should do it. Expect that joke to be recycled later.

It's too cold for Harmi, at any rate. The Man Who Would Play In The Ashes has pulled out with an upper back injury sustained in training two days ago. Yvette Cooper, Durham's press officer, found time to record that he would be fit for the next game before being asked to attend to more urgent matters such as getting some heat in the media box. Sadly, as Wisden astutely points out, there are no longer enough bodies in county press boxes for us to huddle together for warmth. Durham, though, have more considerable media interest than most counties, owing to the fact that these days they are successful (two champos on the trot) and embedded in their community in a way that does them proud.

A goodly crowd of about 800 is sitting expectantly in winter overcoats. Alastair Cook, who has survived the first 40 minutes, must think this is a world away from the unresponsive pastures of Bangladesh. Mitchell Claydon, Harmison's replacement, is carrying a bit of early-season excess and Billy Godleman has been dismissed for nought, leg before to Callum Thorp.

And, for those of you who love slick connections, Godleman, before he moved to Essex, was the second youngest player ever to play for Middlesex. The first was Steve Finn. After his nine-fer against Worcestershire, he is in the wickets again this morning, taking Glamorgan's first wicket at Lord's. If someone out there is sat in the Warner Stand, Blackberry at the ready, feel free to tell us about it.

11.25am Thanks to the mild clamour roused in its favour by the readers on yesterday's Spin, the county cricket live blog is back, writes Andy Bull at Hove. Don't say we don't listen to you folks. It's a good day for it. The weather is glorious here and my mood would be all the better if I hadn't spilt coffee all down my shirtfront on the train journey from London. Somewhat stained, I've taken up my station in the press box. Sussex won the toss and decided to field first, perhaps sensing that Surrey's top-order may be more than a little vulnerable after their sorry collapse against Derbyshire on Monday.

Surrey would have been stronger if Michael Brown were fit, but he was ruled out after struggling to get through a net session yesterday. So Harinath and Spriegel continue as a rather rickety opening pair. I say continue, but Spreigel has just been caught behind so here comes Ramps. Chris Schofield is also in the team, despite playing the last three days in a row for the Second XI. Still no sign of Chris Tremlett, who is apparently still having his "workload managed". Will be interesting to see how Hamilton-Brown goes on his return to his old club after a distinctly uninspirational start to his captaincy in the first match of the season — he made all of 17 in his two innings.

No sign either of any animal rights protestors, despite the uproar over Sussex's recent hiring of a marksman to shoot a fox that had been making a pest of itself around the ground. "Nigel Furness, 60, was at The Sussex Cricketer pub in Hove when he heard three shots just after midnight," reported the Argus, "He said: "I thought, 'there's something wrong here, what on earth is going on?' "It's a big open space so it can be quite creepy at night."

It turned out that Hove had not been hit a gang spree, but that the gunshots were quite legit. "We went through all of the different processes we could consider, such as rehousing it, but we were told that we were not allowed to do that," said chief executive Dan Brooks, "so the only alternative we had left was to have the fox killed by a licensed company." As Andrew Miller quipped on Cricinfo, "rumours that the fox was exterminated on the orders of the club's new sponsor, Old Speckled Hen, have been strongly denied."